Changes

I've said it before, and it's still true, I love how things are always changing around the farm. The fields turn from brown to bright grassy green at the same time that the leaves turn from deep green to yellow to brown.

 The oldest tractor on the farm came out of retirement to help feed the cattle.

 The cattle are learning the feeding routine. They follow where the tractor goes and then still seem surprised when their food shows up.

 Watching them eat makes me soooooooooooo thirsty. Goodness.

 It's getting colder outside, the season of playing in the dirt with tractors, trucks and pots and pans is over.

 The cattle have provided not only a change in scenery, but a change in smell to the farm. Those perked up ears mean only one thing - they're about to run!

 We went on a walk on Sunday afternoon and noticed on how quickly the cattle have changed the ground inside their pen from grassy to dirt/mud.

 Sunday was a lovely day. We went out to the creek and the boys served us "coffee" and "snacks" from their "coffee shop." Axle and the cats followed us out to the creek, and of course that brings me to another change.

 The pile of leaves is still outside the house where Axle died. It's so strange to not have him here.

Basketball season has begun for Ben. That gives me a lot more time to be a single parent - for better or worse. To keep busy during these long evenings in the house, we've been playing games and putting together puzzles. Some evenings that goes really well, others not so much.
The changes just keep coming around here.

Goodbye Axle

Our dog Axle died today. He was our dog for less than two years, but he certainly became a part of our farm and family in that time.

 He was always at our side, walking all over the farm, providing protection to our cats and chickens, keeping us company, giving us a sense of security.

 But today, after being his usual cheerful-self, after eating his usual breakfast, saying good-bye to each of us as we left for the day, he curled up in his favorite pile of leaves and died. Levi and I raked that pile on Saturday, Levi put flags around it for fun, and Axle had spent most of his outside-sleeping time in that pile the last few days.

 The skid steer took Axle to his final resting place. I was so sad, but the fact that the boys and I were following a skid steer to bury Axle did make me chuckle. All along with Axle, we've found ourselves bouncing back and forth from "He's a dog....." to "Well, we don't want him to be too cold/hungry/miserable/in pain." Never able to keep him firmly in the category of "farm dog" but instead constantly allowing him to be one of us.

 One hundred steers were in attendance as we said farewell. No, we didn't sing any songs or say any prayers. It was surprising to me that Levi suddenly popped out with, "You mean we can't see Axle again?!" with tears running down his cheeks. That prompted us all to tears for a little bit, then the moment passed. It was like we just needed that one last cry.

I have to admit, I've shed more tears over this dog then I ever thought I would. He was the perfect first dog for our family. He taught us to love dogs, or at least he showed us how easy it was to love him.

Grinding Hay

Declaring something to be "exciting" is really a matter of opinion and perspective. So in our opinion and from our perspective it was very exciting when the hay grinding contraption drove onto the farmyard on Saturday morning. 

I've always found it funny when a person arrives at the farm to do this type of work. They arrive and the farmers could be anywhere! In the house, the barn, the shed, the other shed, the other barn, out back by the bales, etc. It's always been funny to me how that initial personal contact gets negotiated.

Regardless, the hay grinding man and the farmers found each other while the boys quickly got dressed to go outside and watch. That's the best way to get them out of their jammies on a Saturday morning, no doubt!

The Mighty Giant is an impressive piece of equipment. We watched from a distance while the operator swung the auger out, unfurled the long claw arm and then turned on the loud motor!

The boys' eyes were glittering like it was Christmas morning when the first poofs of chopped hay and dust came flying out of the machine.

The dust got so bad we moved away, then a bit further away, then a bit further and finally ended up on the other side so we were upwind. What a relief!

The operator of the hay grinder controlled his machine with levers and buttons in the small cab where he sat. Otherwise, it required one person driving the tractor to keep a steady source of bails for the machine to "eat". The claw arm grabbed the bale from the ground, lifts it up and then drops it in the round spinning grinder. It spins and disappears - like, pouf! Crazy.

In the end, there was a tall mountain of food for the cattle.

Hmmmm.....yummy...actually, it makes me super thirsty just thinking about eating that.

We kept a close eye on the operation, only getting distracted by frosted leaves and tree trunks.

I thought that maybe I could get them to smile so I'd have a photo for our Christmas card, but nope.

Nothing but silliness from this one.

And Noah wasn't in the mood - he gave me the "are you serious?!" look when I asked them to move closer together and smile again for another photo.

The lasts puffs of straw and dust and suddenly the project was complete! We all headed back inside and the boys gladly gulped down hot warm chocolate to warm up.
And that was the excitement on the farm for Saturday! Unless you count the football, volleyball, baseball, tennis and soccer games that the boys and I played in the afternoon.  Ben was away working his first college basketball game, so we created our own fun with a whirlwind of backyard athletics.

Time with Levi

 The cattle are free and happy in their newly fenced in pasture. Again, I still haven't gotten very close to them but it's nice to see them hanging around out in the open. Levi and I went on a shorter-than-expected walk to explore in the pasture on Friday afternoon. He lost his ambition to explore just after we got to the pasture

 Instead we headed over to my parents' yard to swing at their small playground.

 That morphed into Levi "selling" me food from his pretend restaurant. The menu choices were quite creative, many having the word "poop" in them which made him laugh and laugh and laugh. Oh the humor of boys. :-)

It's good to hang out with Levi on Friday afternoons. I rarely know ahead of time what sorts of adventures we'll have together, and while they're usually nothing out-of-the-ordinary, I treasure them all the same.

Oct. 31

Halloween was a busy day for me. I signed up to help with Levi's Halloween party in the morning, and Noah's party in the afternoon. I walked into the kindergarten room to find the whole class lined up for pictures. 

 I happily whipped out my camera and snapped a few.  It was quite a fierce looking group! After the photos, they left to do a costume parade through the school. Which meant it was time for me to set up the snack table!

 Apple slices, dip, almond bark dipped pretzels and mini pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. I had plenty of food, but was really in awe of how much food those kids ate!

 Here they come!

 Levi was excited, but well behaved. He made eyes at me several times and ate about ten mini muffins.

 After snacks, the kids did crafts and games. It was a whirlwind of activity and then suddenly it was time for the party to end! Poof, just like that!

 A couple hours later, Levi and I returned to the school for Noah's party. The 2nd graders were very excited about Halloween. The 1st-5th graders do a costume parade through the nursing home just down the street. When they returned it was party ON!

 I did the snacks for this party, too - same menu and they ate everything!

Levi was happy to help clean off the spoon from the dip. :-)

 The pace of the 2nd grade party was much different than the kindergarten one. Noah's class ate much faster, were up and around the room, easily distracted. The kindergarten class at least stayed in their seats while they ate!

 I know the kids in Noah's class better than I do the kids in Levi's class and I enjoy interacting with them a lot. They're funny, kind and full of personality. After a craft and games, the school day was over! After that, the boys and I walked over to Bethesda for their annual Halloween Carnival. The boys love it! It gets crazy-full of kids and parents, so this year I mostly just stayed to the side and visited with other parents instead of trying to follow my kids around.

 We ate supper at home and then took off to trick-or-treat in Goessel. This was our first time to hit the sandy streets of Goessel on Halloween and it was actually a ton of fun. I was tired and not looking forward to walking up and down the streets, but the boys were into it, the weather was perfect and it turned out to be a fun evening. We only lasted about an hour - and surprisingly enough - didn't make it to all the houses in town! But, it was dark and Levi was tired and Noah was easily lured home by the promise of getting to see a little bit of Thursday night college football on TV.

I have to admit, at the end of the evening I felt a relief - we could check Halloween off the list. There's always so much anticipation for it, and it's my least favorite holiday. Here we go with November!

Cattle, fence and pumpkin carving

We've got ten steers on the yard. This is about as close as I've been able to get to them during their first week here. 

 But there's plenty of evidence to prove where they've been hanging out.

 The farmers have been busy finishing up the fence for the cattle (the ten were kept in the free stall barn while they waited for the fence to be completed).

Lots of fence...

The farmers worked hard to attach the panels to the posts,

making sure to carefully weld it together.

And while the farmers were outside doing that - Levi and I got busy carving his pumpkin. We figured it was time to do that since Halloween was only five days away! (Yes, I'm behind in my blogging....)

He found out that scooping out the guts of a pumpkin is more work than he thought!

He took a photo of me carving out the design we worked on together.

Finished product! Noah came in the house about an hour later and we carved his pumpkin.